When Northwood’s men’s basketball team actually ran its offense Friday, the Timberwolves looked pretty darn good. But getting into that offense proved to be a tricky proposition for NU for much of the night.

St. Joseph’s employed a fullcourt pressing, trapping defense and pestered the Timberwolves into one turnover after another on the way to erasing a big first-half deficit and edging NU 82-78 in the opening game of the GLIAC/GLVC Challenge at Riepma Arena.

Northwood coach Jeff Rekeweg was disappointed in how his team attacked — or, rather, failed to attack — the Pumas’ press. He was even more disappointed in dropping a home game against a regional opponent to start the regular season.

“It’s one game out of 29 (on our schedule), but this one really hurts,” Rekeweg said. “It’s at home, and it’s against a GLVC team. This is not a good loss for us.”

The Timberwolves scored points in waves during much of the first half, at one juncture leading St. Joseph’s by 18. But turnovers, which the Pumas converted into points both during the first few minutes of the game and throughout the second half, ended up costing NU in the long run.

St. Joseph’s scored 17 points off of 17 Northwood turnovers, while the Timberwolves managed only five points off of 10 turnovers by the Pumas.

“We just had guys who avoided the ball, and we didn’t execute simple things as far as spacing,” Rekeweg said of his team’s inability to break the press. “ ... It was just man-to-man run-and-jumps (that we needed to execute). When we kept our heads up and made cuts, we’d end up with layups. ... But you’ve got to give St. Joe’s credit, because it was their pressure that created those situations for us and hurried us up.

“ ... We’ve got to do a better job of being strong with the ball,” he added.

The Timberwolves committed four turnovers in the first few minutes of the game, as St. Joseph’s jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead. From there, though, Northwood settled down, began moving the ball effectively, getting the ball inside, making shots, and crashing the offensive boards. The result was an impressive 41-16 run — including 3-pointers from five players and 11 points from 6-foot-7 junior center Matt Crowl — which gave the Timberwolves a seemingly comfortable 41-23 lead late in the first half.

The Pumas answered with a pair of triples by Eric Gillespie to cut it to 41-29, but junior forward Charlie Ryan came off the bench in the closing minutes to give NU a couple of big buckets in the paint, and the Timberwolves went into the locker room with a 46-31 advantage.

The second half was a far different story, though. While Northwood had trouble just inbounding the ball or getting to halfcourt against the press, St. Joseph’s converted an assortment of layups and leaners in the lane in a 20-5 run which trimmed the deficit all of the way down to 53-51.

Crowl countered with a couple more inside buckets to stem the tide momentarily, but the Pumas regained the lead for the first time since early in the game, 60-59, moments later on a 3-pointer by Nick Jeffirs. From there, the teams traded leads six more times over the final 11 minutes.

Northwood’s last lead, 76-75, came on a 3-pointer by Kyle Lamotte with 1:40 to go. St. Joseph’s came right back with a tough fallaway jumper by Davious Webster to regain the lead for good at 77-76.

Then, following another NU turnover, Crowl was whistled for an intentional foul with only 19 seconds remaining. CJ Hardaway sank both free throws, and the Pumas retained possession. Kindred Williams was then fouled on the subsequent inbounds play, and he also made both free throws, giving St. Joseph’s an 81-76 lead and essentially sealing the victory.

Rekeweg had noted before the season began that, with the departure of previous point guard Maurice Jones, ballhandling would be a question mark for his young Timberwolves.

“We knew coming in (to the season) that that was going to be something we’d have to be pretty efficient at and something that was going to be a challenge for our guys,” he said of handling pressure. “It’s just disappointing, being in the situation we were in at the half and then not being able to regroup when (St. Joseph’s) made runs.

“We really struggled when things went against us a couple of times ... and we didn’t think, ‘Next play,’” he added. “We just panicked. And that’s part of (developing) maturity. With a young team, you’re going to have (issues like) that.”

A bright spot for the Timberwolves was the play of Crowl, who scored a career-high 19 points on 9-of-14 shooting six days after notching a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds in an exhibition win over Calvin College.

Rekeweg said he would’ve liked to see Crowl get even more touches.

“We didn’t get it to (Crowl) enough. That was our game plan all along — to get it inside, whether it was to Matt or Zach (Allread) or Brad (Schaub). We didn’t do a good enough job of getting it in (the paint) to them. Very seldom were we not successful when we got it in there,” Rekeweg noted.

“ ... We’ve been very pleased with what Matt’s done and his improvement,” he added. “He’s so much more solid, more balanced in the post, and he’s finishing (shots) at a higher rate.”

St. Joseph’s shot 48 percent (29 of 60) from the floor overall, including 57 percent (10 of 18) from 3-point range, while NU shot 45 percent (29 of 65) overall but only 38 percent in the second half.

After draining 7 of 13 from beyond the arc in the first half, the Timberwolves made only 2 of 7 from long range in the second half to finish at 45 percent for the game.

“We shot it really well from the 3 in the first half ... and for the game, we’ll take 45 percent from the 3 all year,” Rekeweg said. “But you can’t shoot 38 percent from the field (in a half), which we did.”

Gillespie shot 6 of 10 from long range and finished with a game-high 22 points to lead the Pumas, while Jeffirs had 15 points and nine rebounds, Williams scored 14 points, and Hardaway finished with 12 points.

Lamotte scored 15 points for NU, while Schaub had 13 points, nine boards, and four assists. The Timberwolves’ guard combo of Jarel Woolridge and Jure Prus had eight points and six assists and seven points and three assists, respectively, but they also combined for 10 turnovers.

Northwood will wrap up the GLIAC/GLVC Challenge with a 7:30 p.m. game against third-ranked Bellarmine on Saturday.

“Now, we’ve got to get ready for Bellarmine. We’ll address some things in our shoot-around and in our video session, and we’ll get ready for (Saturday),” said Rekeweg. “ ... We’ve got to take care of the ball. That’s one of our huge things — just taking possessions (one at a time), and we certainly didn’t do that, obviously.”